Draper platforms are elongate laterally extending harvesting devices configured to be mounted on the front of agricultural combines. Draper platform's extend generally perpendicular to the direction of travel and are configured to sever crop plants from the ground, carry them inwardly on flat conveyor belts toward a center section of the draper platform, and then convey them rearward through an aperture in the conveyor platform into a feederhouse of an agricultural combine, and thence into the agricultural combine itself.
In one arrangement, the forward edge of the conveyor belts that convey the crop inwardly toward a center section of the draper platform are covered by a stationary hold down that is affixed to a leading edge of the draper platform right behind a reciprocating knife. These hold downs serve dual functions. First, they provide a surface over which cut crop material is easily dragged by the traditional reel mounted on the draper platform. Second, they cover the leading edge of the conveyor belt to hold the belt down and ensure that cut crop material does not become wedged underneath the conveyor belt.
Newer draper platform designs permit the reciprocating knife and the leading edge of the draper platform to move up and down in order to better follow the contours of the land. As a result, the hold downs must be permitted to flex with respect to each other sliding into closer engagement in withdrawing into a more distant engagement as the leading edge of the draper platform is dragged over the surface of the ground.
This flexibility of engagement means that the hold downs must be made in short sections, close together along substantially the entire width of the draper platform immediately behind the reciprocating knife. A draper platform that is 10-15 meters in width may have 30-40 of these individual hold downs in a row on each side of the draper platform across substantially the entire width of the draper platform, with each hold down being interengaged with its two adjacent hold downs.
While this arrangement permits the draper platform to flex up and down along its leading edge, it also provides gaps into which soil, grain, or crop plants may become jammed. Once one of the joints between the adjacent hold downs becomes filled with unwanted matter, the unwanted matter spreads the adjacent hold downs farther and farther apart until the lower surfaces of the hold downs rubs against the conveyor belt traveling immediately underneath. This causes where of the conveyor belt, and wear of the hold downs as well. If the hold downs are made of plastic, they can be damaged relatively easily.
What is needed, therefore, is a new conveyor belt hold down that resists the insertion of unwanted matter in between adjacent hold downs. It is an object of this invention to provide such a hold down.